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Dead bees on bottom board

I'm new at bee keeping, I've got 4 hives and all have made it through the winter so far. I am concerned about 1 of the hive. The bottom board had a lot of dead bees. The other hives have very few dead bees. The weather has been cold all through January very few days above 30 deg. I raked out a little more than a pint of bees last weekend. When temps got above 50 this week hive seemed as strong or stronger than other hives. Bees have plenty of supplies. What should I look for? Thanks for all the help!!!

Re: Dead bees on bottom board

Bee colonies are individuals and some are better housekeepers than others. There may be another reason, it really doesn't matter much, that is a normal amount of dead bees on the bottom of the hive. If they are as strong as the others then the hive is probably good to go.

That being said, most colonies die in the spring from starvation, getting pinned to their brood and not being able to cluster over honey or they are queenless and just start dying of old age. You said they have plenty of stores. Make sure it stays that way. Now that they are undoubtedly raising brood, their food consumption will really shoot up. Check and anytime you can't find capped honey, feed the until they have capped honey. Do it internally so you don't start them robbing each other. Good job getting four most of the way thru.

Re: Dead bees on bottom board

That information is best gotten from an experienced beekeeper in your zip code. If you have pollen coming in now and want your colonies to expand, now would not be too early. That expansion will require a lot of chow so don't let them run low on feed.

That being said, is there a flow that will require all those bees you are encouraging your colony to raise? Are you going to split? Encouraging buildup can also encourage swarming. Do some thinking and study about that. It is -3 here right now so I won't be putting on patties for a bit.